Penn State lands commitment from grad transfer RayQuawndis Mitchell

Former Kansas City guard RayQuawndis Mitchell has committed to Penn State, he told On3.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound graduate transfer averaged 17.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game this past season for the Roos, who finished sixth in the Summit league. Mitchell began his college career in 2018-19 at Idaho, playing there for one season. He then transferred to UIC for the 2020-21 season before making the jump to Kansas City for the 2022-23 season.

Mitchell, a native of Blaine, Minnesota, will now head up to the northeast to finish his college career under new Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades, formerly at VCU. The Nittany Lions finished ninth in the Big Ten this past season under head coach Micah Shrewsberry, who’s now left for the Notre Dame job after Mike Brey stepped down.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

RayQuawndis Mitchell is headed to Penn State, transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.